One Afternoon
by XSilverLiningsX
Summary: Aran and Evan share a lighthearted summer afternoon at Zipangu's Mushroom Shrine. A male!Aran and female!Evan friendship fic. Teeny, tiny bit of Aran crushing on Evan.


**Title: **One Afternoon

**Fandom:** Maple Story

**Rating:** K+

**Characters/Pairings:** male!Aran, female!Evan, NPC mentions

**Genre:** Friendship/General

**Summary:** Aran and Evan share a lighthearted summer afternoon at Zipangu's Mushroom Shrine. A male!Aran and female!Evan friendship fic. Teeny, tiny bit of Aran crushing on Evan.

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><p>The sun shone brilliantly over the cherry blossom covered Mushroom Shrine of Zipangu, its rays of sunlight warming the usually fair-weathered tiny Japanese town. It was just like any other afternoon in the Maple Word as the few travelers from lands far and wide passed by the generally quiet shrine for the acceptance of the occasional quest or a taste of its well-known Japanese cuisine. The lively chatter of the townsfolk and occasional cry of the shrine's gong echoed through the small area, but despite its initial shortcomings when compared to the more resort-like and modern city of Showa Town, the Mushroom Shrine was, for the most part, a largely peaceful precinct.<p>

Well, that was what Evan thought as she relaxed with a book in the shaded area of the nearly empty dango shop owned by the incredibly overenthusiastic Taru, settling comfortably on the padded wooden benches as her blue dragon, Mir, alternated between munching away happily on several sticks of the sweet Tri-colored dango and licking the shopkeeper in an attempt to get the man to give him some more of the colorful stick-dumplings. Taking a sip of her cup of cooled green tea and turning a page of her new Pig Illustrated, Evan sighed comfortably and returned to her book, ready to do nothing else but relax for the rest of her day.

Evan didn't realize that she spent almost an hour just sipping her tea and reading in the cool shade of the shop until the sudden sound of metal and wood crashing together at the entrance of the dango shop jolted her out of her calm stupor. Dust and splinters of wood flew everywhere, clouding her view of whatever just happened. Thankfully, Mir flapped his wings a flew times and cleared the clouds of dust just as Taru, the shopkeeper, squeaked out loudly,

"MY TABLES!"

Barely covered under the pile of overturned wooden tables and benches, Evan noted that the head of white hair and the steel pole-arm were incredibly familiar.

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><p>"So, you've been in here the entire morning?" Aran asked between mouthfuls of jumbo octopus takoyaki and dango as he sat across from Evan at her table in the dango store, batting away Mir's determined attempts at snatching some of his dango. Evan rolled her eyes in exasperation.<p>

"I'm not paying for the damages you've done to this store just because you supposedly smelled food from miles away and haven't eaten since yesterday because you were too busy training," And then she noticed something else, "And where did you get the takoyaki? This is a dango store." Aran swallowed his mouthful of food before replying,

"Yeah, yeah, don't worry about the damages. Oh, and there's a store across the street owned by Bronze that sells these at a decent price."

Evan eyed her friend as he devoured his food like a starving person. She hadn't seen him since after the incident with the hole in the ground at Henesys several months earlier, but Evan was somehow not surprised at the fact that he looked like he didn't change at all except for the small bandages scattered here and there on his face as well as the slightly different armor, of which she noted was not fur or leather. Aran noticed her staring and slowed down his ravenous eating.

"What are you looking at me weirdly for? Is there something on my face?" Evan blinked and raised an eyebrow before her lips tugged into a smile at her virtually unchanged friend.

"Nope. Just slow down though; it wouldn't be good if you died choking on food before facing the Black Mage, would it?" Aran sputtered and almost dropped his chopsticks, the tip of his ears turning pinkish-red in embarrassment as he batted Mir's claws away from the rest of his uneaten lunch.

"I—well—er—I'll keep that in mind...?" Evan sighed and turned to dig in her backpack for her purse.

Calling out to Taru for the bill, one of Evan's eyes twitched violently as she noticed the total price of all the dango that Mir had eaten and glared at her dragon, who cowered behind Aran's back. Aran froze at the venomous glower being directed through him before systematically stuffing his face with the rest of his takoyaki and dango in an attempt to hide behind his food.

Sometime later, after Evan settled the quite enormous bill that Mir had racked up and Aran paid for both his meal and the damage caused to the dango shop after blindly barreling into it earlier, the two Maplers strolled on top of the grassy hill that held the largest cherry-blossom tree as well as the best vantage point to observe the Mushroom Shrine's daily activities.

Aran set his pole-arm gently on the grass before dropping down without a care near the base of the old tree while Evan opted to sit down next to him but carefully on a patch of grass, mindful of not dirtying the clean clothes that she had bought a few days prior with the small pouch of mesos her mother had given her as a going-off gift. Mir decided to perch on one of the sturdy branches above, squawking like a bird he flapped his wings and settled down for a nap as his mistress didn't need him for the moment.

Once situated nicely against the wide trunk of the aging cherry-blossom tree, Aran rummaged around his backpack, clearly looking for something. Evan watched with an eyebrow raised as the pole-arm wielder took out a pack of Monster Cards; it's been quite a long time since she'd seen one of those packs as she had assumed that the childish fad had long grown out in favor of the new and more 'modern' toys that the future generations now had.

"It's been a long time since I've played a worthwhile game with someone... wanna give it a try?" Aran waved the pack of cards teasingly in front of her with a stupid-looking grin on his face. Evan couldn't help it as (she assumed) an equally stupid look grew on her face and she snatched the cards from her friend and began shuffling.

"So, do you want to go first or should I?" Aran shook his head.

"Ladies first, as usual." Finishing her shuffling, Evan pouted slightly and then smacked Aran's arm playfully.

"Just don't start crying when I beat you!"

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><p>Aran mentally face-palmed when Evan won yet another match with a triumphant smile. He seriously didn't think that he would play so badly that the score would end up being 5 to 16, but then again, after being an ice cube for several decades playing a card game wouldn't be on the top of his list after miraculously being revived.<p>

They've both been incredibly concentrated on the game, barely noticing the hours passing by as they enjoyed themselves in their fast-pacing game. The bright sun behind them slowly dipped under the horizon, painting everything and anything with brilliant pinkish-gold hues of light. The oldest flowering tree of the Zipangu's tiny shrine seemed to glow even more healthily in the setting sun's light as the two Maplers treasured their brief time together just as two normal people without a care for the world.

As he watched Evan deal out the cards with an expertise benefiting a would-be Dragon master with a ridiculously large and joyful smile, Aran couldn't help but feel that for the time being, under the aging cherry-blossom tree, all was right in the world.


End file.
